


Kiss Me Hard Before You Go

by TheQueenyGospels



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 14:35:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8671306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenyGospels/pseuds/TheQueenyGospels
Summary: Four times Keith and Shiro almost kissed and the first time they did.





	

**Author's Note:**

> *Laughs maniacally*

It’s the night before Shiro leaves for Kerberos, he and Keith are sitting on the roof of the Garrison, Matt and Dr Holt were celebrating with their family, and Shiro was celebrating with his.

“I can’t believe you’re going to Kerberos, it’s just, that’s so far away.” Keith was laying on his back, staring at the stars, he didn’t want Shiro to see exactly how much he was going to miss him.

“The mission’s only eight months, I’ll be back before you know it.” Shiro said with a smile, turning onto his side to smile at Keith, the young cadet didn’t look back, instead he just continued to gaze at the stars, they reflected against his glassy, indigo eyes. “Keith.” Suddenly Shiro was engulfed in a hug as Keith hid his face in Shiro’s chest and clutched at the back of his shirt.

“I’m gonna miss you so much.” Shiro laughed before he hugged Keith back, he’d been wondering how long it would take the other boy to admit it.

“I’m going to miss you too.” Keith loosened his grip slightly and looked up at Shiro, he both hated and loved how much taller than him Shiro was. For a moment they both just looked at each other, each trying to imagine how they were going to be without each other, would Keith remember to do his homework? Would Shiro remember to eat breakfast? Would they be okay without each other?

Seeing this as an opportunity, Keith closed his eyes slightly and reached upwards, hoping-praying- that Shiro would meet him in the middle.

He didn’t. Instead, Shiro moved away and sat up, leaving Keith sort of confused.

“It’s late,” It was 8:45. “I should go sleep, early morning tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah… Uh, see ya.”

“Bye.” Shiro quickly made his escape but hesitated before he was completely gone, he looked back at Keith and saw how disappointed and confused he looked, and for a moment he felt bad, but he shook it off. He couldn’t do something like _that_ to Keith, what if something happened on the mission? Nothing would, he’d done all the engine checks three time, on top of the engineers’ checks, he’d checked everything, but there was always a chance, and he couldn’t do that to Keith.

 

* * *

Keith always trained in the morning and he usually just used one of the robots, but after the ‘incident’ he was hesitant to do it without someone else in the room, or at least in the control room. When Shiro had realised this was the reason Keith had stopped training in the morning he’d offered to train with him, vouching that it would be good to train with a real person for a while. Keith agreed but, damn, did he regret it.

Turns out when Shiro said ‘train’ he really meant it.

Shiro had taken up a fighting stick while Keith had made his bayard copy the object. They trained for an hour, without stopping once, while Keith barely kept up with Shiro, who fought against a grin every time he landed a hit. Shiro offered to take a break but Keith instantly refused, then encouraged Shiro with the edge of his bayard to continue.

“We can take a break, you know,” Shiro repeated as he blocked a blow. “Everyone’s probably having breakfast by now.”

“Why, you getting tired? Keith smirked as he managed to land a hit at Shiro’s side.

“No, but you are.” Shiro replicated his smirk.

“Huh?” Suddenly Shiro whacked the lower back of Keith’s legs, sending the boy backwards.

Shocked, Keith reached out for support but instead latched onto Shiro’s shirt and pulled the older boy down with him. They both gasped as they hit the ground, Keith letting out a small groan when his back collided with the ground. Keith blinked for a moment, still in shock, but when he finally focused he realised Shiro had managed to only just catch himself before he landed on Keith, leaving him in a push up position and grinning from ear to ear.

Shiro’s laugh was easily Keith’s favourite sound, when he laughed, really laughed, his eyes scrunched up, his entire body shook and his laugh was like pure gold. His laugh was contagious and within seconds he and Shiro were both laughing breathlessly.

When Shiro calmed down and looked down at Keith his eyes softened, Keith was still laughing slightly, eyes watery in the corner and his smile was so strong, more genuine than it had been in weeks. When Keith realised Shiro was staring he tilted his head.

“What?” He asked quickly, suddenly very aware that Shiro was right above him, neither of them had even made a move to separate.

“I missed you.” Shiro admitted, grinning at the blush that tinted Keith’s ears.

The room seemed so still in that moment, they were the only ones there, nothing could go wrong. With this in mind, Shiro began to lean down, slow enough that Keith could protest but instead Keith placed a hand in Shiro’s hair… But apparently that was too slow.

“There you guys are!” The door to the training suddenly opened and Shiro disappeared from Keith’s hand, instantly standing on his feet and motionless like a frightened animal. “Oh, Keith, my man, did Shiro kick your ass?” Keith glared at Lance as he climbed to his feet as well.

“Apparently.” Keith replied bluntly, turning to look at Shiro, who had somehow removed himself from the situation and was instead smiling and talking with Pidge and Hunk.

“Oh, man, that would have been great to watch.”

“Because of your raging crush on Shiro?” Lance paused for a moment but recovered easily with a laugh.

“Ha! No… Because of yours.” With that, Lance joined the others, leaving Keith froze on his spot… Was he that obvious?

* * *

The stars from the roof of the Garrison were nothing compared to the views you could find in the Castle of Lions, and Keith seemed to be the only person who had noticed. It was late at night when he found himself sitting cross-legged in front of a huge window, just staring at all the stars, wandering if one of them was Earth.

“It’s really late, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Keith moved slightly in his spot to look at Shiro. The older man was wearing a loose shirt and pants that hung low on his hips, and his hair was proof that he had at one point been asleep, he was probably walking around after a nightmare.

“True… Mind if I sit with you?” Keith shook his head at patted the spot beside him. For a while they both sat in silence, staring at the stars as the ship moved slowly through the galaxy.

“Do you remember when we use to sit on the roof of the Garrison?” Keith asked quietly while he moved to lean back on his hands. Shiro smiled.

“Yeah, you never made it past twelve.”

“Hey, in my defence, you continuously telling me we should go to bed before we get caught is tiring enough to put anyone to sleep.” Shiro laughed. “And yet, we never got caught.” Keith added with a grin.

“We could have been caught though.”

“And yet.”

“Yeah… You always named all the constellations like I wasn’t taking astronomy with Matt.”

“Yeah… I can’t name any of these ones.” Keith lowered his gaze momentarily, before he spoke again. “I miss Earth, even though the Garrison sucked sometimes and the some of the commanding officers were assholes, I still miss Earth.

“Yeah, I think I miss proper food the most, like cheese burgers, and… Oh, and brownies, I’d give anything for actual chocolate brownies, with actual choc chips, not those green goo ones Hunk loves to make; they’re nice, but they’re not chocolate.” Keith smiled at Shiro fondly but his eyes were sad, he missed Earth food as well, instead of Altean food and the gifts they got from other planets.

“I miss my stuff.” Keith admitted, causing Shiro to look at him. “We didn’t really have time to pack, we didn’t know what was going to happen; we just got into the blue lion and never had a chance to go back.” Keith’s shoulders dropped slightly. “They’ve probably packed up all of Lance, Pidge and Hunk’s stuff, what do you think their parents are thinking, their kids just went missing… Pidge’s mum is all alone, Hunk’s mums are probably worried sick, he has a baby sister, and do you realise how big Lance’s family is? There’s more people in his family than there are in the entire Garrison, and he can name everyone one of them.”

“Whoa, Keith, breathe.” Shiro lifted his arm to rubbed Keith’s back slowly. “It’ll be okay, we’ll go back one day.” _One day._ Keith lent into Shiro touch and looked back at the stars, blinking to get rid of the tears in his eyes that had formed without his consent. Shiro stopped moving his hand for a moment. "Need a hug, Akira." Keith almost hated that Shiro remembered he'd turn to putty whenever he used his real name.

The hug was long, they'd both maneuvered so that they were chest-against-chest, with Keith's head against Shiro's shoulder and Shiro hand resting on the back of Keith's neck. Neither of them made an attempt to move until their muscles began to ache. 

"You okay now?" Shiro asked when they pulled apart, hand still on Keith neck. 

"I guess." It wasn't as sincere as Shiro had hope but it was enough for now. Shiro smiled at Keith but realised the boy was really looking at him, instead Keith was staring at the lower half of Shiro face.

Shiro leaned in and Keith followed suit, and they were so close.

“Paladins, we are under attack!”

SERIOUSLY!?

Alarms rang through the castle, waking up the other paladins and causing Shiro and Keith to jump to their feet so they could prepare for battle. Keith couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the aliens that had attacked them, he had so much frustration that needed to be let out.

* * *

Not like this, they were-he wasn’t- meant to find out like this, he was going to sit everyone down and explain the situation. It wasn’t meant to happen like this.

They’d been in the heat of battle and everything was going perfectly, they’d had each other’s backs… Then Red got hit, with Keith inside, she shut down, her right side blasted and badly damaged. Keith’s head had hit the control panels. Hard. His vision fuzzed and all the noise around him faded into the distance, vaguely he could hear Shiro and the others calling for him through his helmet but he couldn’t get him mouth to respond.

With Red now just floating through the battle, Shiro pulled back and quickly rushed Black towards Red, mentally begging the he didn’t find Keith slumped over his controls and motionless. He knew the others could handle themselves, there was only two small fighter crafts left, easy to take out.

“I’m taking Keith back to the castle.” He told them as black gripped onto Red began flying her back to castle. “Please be okay.”

Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. It replayed in his head as he jump out of Black and ran inside Red, but when he saw Keith he froze. He was slump in his chair, head cradled in his hands while he head pulse and blood dripped down his face.

“Kie… Akira?”

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice was gruffer than usual, and he spoke with a lisp, trying to get his tongue pass the fangs in his mouth. Keith used his chair to hide himself from Shiro but the older man stepped forward.

“Akira, are you okay?”

“Don’t come any close, please, just don’t.”

“Akira, what’s going on? Are you hurt?” Shiro continue forward.

“Takashi, please, I’m fine.” Keith looked at his hands as they shook, they were a hateful purple, with sharp claws, and he couldn’t get rid of it, he was too dizzy to hide it.

A heavy, metal hand landed on his shoulder, it was hesitant and shaky but Shiro tried to stay steady as his eyes raked over Keith, he’d taken his helmet off, making the blood so much more obvious, and his face was… Purple, with light fur along the edges.

Keith instantly moved from his chair and away from Shiro, he couldn’t bear it.

“Don’t touch me… Don’t look at me!” Keith covered his face, blocked out the yellow light that came from his eyes. “I-I… Not like this. You weren’t supposed to find out that I-I…” He sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m one of them… I’m a monster.”

“Akira, you’re not a monster.” Shiro pushed himself to Keith, he was tense. It was still Keith. It was still the boy he’d met so many years ago, he was still the boy who would fight tooth and nail for what he believed in, and he was still Keith. He was still Akira. “You’re a paladin. You’re more than your species.” Carefully, Shiro lifted his hands to rest on either of Keith’s face and pressed his forehead to Keith’s, leaning in agonisingly slowly, and for a moment he thought he was going to calm under his touch but then Keith pulled away and looked at Shiro with teary eyes.

“I-I can’t… I’m sorry.” Keith turned towards Red’s exit, but paused before he left. He didn’t turn to Shiro but his purple complexion slowly dissipated. “Please… Don’t tell the others.” With that, he left.

The others fussed over him when they saw him leave, he smiled, told them he’d be okay after some rest and first aid, Allura offered him a healing pod but he declined politely then left for the showers.

* * *

**(Extra.)**

Keith sat everyone down a few days after the ‘incident’, he began to talk then paused, he rung his hands, twisted his fingers together painful, Shiro wanted to stand up and tell him it was okay but he knew Keith had built a wall with Shiro on the opposite side of him. Shiro knew where they stood, and it was unbearably far apart from each other.

“I… I’m not human.” That was all he got out before his hands were a nasty red. “I… I’m… I think it’s better if I show you all.” Keith fisted his hands. The group in front of him flinched back when his skin purpled, his eyes turned bright yellow and his canines and nails sharpened slightly. “I’m… I’m a… Galra… I’m sorry.” Allura was suddenly beside Keith, a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Keith, you are a paladin of Voltron and our friend, and-”

“KEITH’S A FURRY!” Lance erupted, cutting Allura off abruptly. “KEITH’S A FURRY!” He dissolved into laughter.

“I-What!?” Keith glared at Lance while he hit the table and clutched at his stomach. “I’m not a furry, you ass!” Lance only continued.

“I’m not sure what a furry is-” Allura began before she was interrupted again.

“Lucky.” Pidge told her.

“But we still care about you, Keith, no matter your heritage or species, we’re a family.” Allura pulled Keith in for a hug. “And, anyway, there have been Galra paladins before, both yellow and red. And now red again, and I know they would be as proud of you as we are.” The others agreed as Keith smiled at Allura warmly.

“Thank you, Allura.”

The rest of the night proceeded pleasantly, Keith stayed purple so Pidge could _study_ him; she was so curious about other species and now she had a Galra just sitting next to her. He spent most of the night answering any question she asked him.

“Do still eat normally, do you have a regular human diet, or you proffer meat or something?”

“I’m evenly an omnivore, but I don’t like tomatoes, I guess.”

“Interesting. Why can you look human when other Galra can’t?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t know my parents, maybe one of them could shapeshift.”

“Whoa, is it weird to talk with sharper teeth, oh, and do you growl, like proper growl, is that a thing?”

“A bit, because they’re not usually sharp, and… Um, yeah, I growl but I usually just try not to.”

“Awesome.”

“Guys, it’s getting late, you should go to bed.” Hunk told them as he finished his Altean tea. It was extremely late, he’d only stayed up because he wanted to make sure Pidge didn’t stay awake all night. Keith and Pidge agreed, separating to go to their rooms.

Keith walked Pidge to her room so she could ask him a few more questions before he slept, and as he walked to his he paused in front of Shiro’s. He thought about knocking, his hand even hovered over the door’s surface for a few seconds, but instead he pulled away and left for his room.

* * *

It was meant to be a short mission. In, out, no problem.

The castle had come across an abandoned Galra ship, they’d scanned it three times just to be sure it was empty, and once they were sure it was they drew straws for who would have to go in and search for information on the Galra Empire and Zarkon (Lance’s idea).

Shiro had already said he was going because he’d be able to open the doors, and when the others drew straws Keith got the shortest, followed by Lance making ‘actual size’ jokes.

“You don’t have to come, you know.” They were already on the pod that was taking them to the ship, they’d agreed there was no point taking the lions on a mission as simple as this.

“It’s fine, Shiro, besides I can read Galran better than you.” Keith had stopped hiding who he was, he walked around in complete Galra form and it had reflected on how he acted, his eye sight and hearing had improved and his reaction time had almost tripled.

Once on the ship they made their way towards the main control room, they’d lost contact with the castle but before they had Alurra again assured them the ship was empty.

“Did you hear something?” Keith paused, just outside the control room, causing Shiro’s hand to stop just short of the lock.

“I can’t hear anything.” They stayed silent for a few seconds.

“I’m just paranoid, let’s go.” Keith made his way to the long, complicated panel once the door was opened and set to work hacking into the files.

It took an hour to reactivate the ships data base _and_ unlock the files that seemed to most important, but when they were finally opened Keith froze.

“This is… This has so many co-ordinates, I don’t even know what some of these are, and some are highlighted. Shiro, come have a look at these.” Shiro hesitated to move from the door, even though he’d locked it, but he eventually complied and walked to stand beside Keith. “Do you recognise any of these?” Shiro stared at the screen, some connected in his head but not enough to know where they’d lead. 

“Save them to Pidge’s hard drive, we’ll see if the castle can figure out what’s at the locations.” Keith did as he was told and plugged the small drive into the dock on the panel.

**BANG!**

“What the hell was that?” Shiro looked at the door, which now had a significant dent in it.

**BANG!**

The dent deepened.

**BANG!**

A gigantic hole was blown into the door before five Galra soldiers rushed into the room and raised their weapons at Shiro and Keith.

“Freeze!” Keith’s purple complexion suddenly disappeared and his yellow eyes faded. “Restrain them.” The soldiers moved towards them, two each. Shiro’s arm activated, instantly taking out his soldiers and the fifth one, and when he turned to check Keith the other paladin had knocked out his two.

“We need to leave right now.” Keith nodded. He ejected the drive and followed Shiro out of the control room. “Why didn’t the scanners pick up the soldiers? How many more are there.” Shiro turned to corner and subsequently answered his own question. _Hundreds._

The entire corridor was filled with Galra soldiers and when they turned to run they came face-to-face with a hundred more soldiers.

The entire thing had been a trap.

“RUN!” Shiro gripped onto Keith’s hand and pulled him down one of the empty corridors; there had to be another why to the pod. Gun fire went off, blasts of energy narrowly missed them as they zigzag through the ship.

The pod was being guarded by only two soldiers, who Shiro took out angrily. He opened the door the pod and climbed in, before offering his hand to Keith.

Bang!

Keith cried out when the blast of energy connect with his back, his human façade disappeared as yellow filled his shocked eyes.

“NO!” Shiro moved to lift Keith into the pod but soldiers quickly filed into the room and latched onto Keith. Shiro punched the closest one as Keith struggled against their grips. There were so many soldiers. “Keith!”

Keith pulled Shiro forward with the edge of his armour and connected their lips. It was short and rushed and shocked Shiro completely, so much so that he didn’t realise Keith had shoved him into the pod and closed the doors before he could protest. Keith’s hand slammed against the eject bottom and sent Shiro flying toward the castle seconds before something hard knocked against his head and everything went black.

“AKIRA!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments if you'd like :) Love yall


End file.
